HELP! BTA in big trouble

[fishfreek]

I've had my bta for about four months and it has been doing great up until today.
I noticed that he moved from his usual spot yesterday and didn't think much about it. Today, when i got home from work, he was half hidden behind the rocks. When i took a closer look at it, it looks like about a third of its tenticles are melted away!!! He couldn't have gotten stuck in the PH because i have some foam over the intake. The only other thing i can think of is that he had possably got cought between the heater and the back wall when the heater kicked on during his move. Man, i hope he's goin to be ok, he sure doesn't look too good.
I started running fresh carbon, anything else i can do or should watch for???

 

[thomas712]

Can you post a pic?
I don't understand melted away, as in they are not there anymore or just severly deflated?
When on the move they will shrink or tighten up. If the tentacles are missing then I'd suspect some type of preditor.
Check ammonia, nitrites,nitrates.

 

[fishfreek]

It still looks pretty rough today. When i said it looked "melted away", its just that, tenticles are no longer there and it looks like an open wound on 1/3 of the disc. I wish i could show a pic but i don't have a camera.
I don't beleive anything was picking at it, i don't have any new additions to the tank. I have an algae blenny, royal gramma, rainfords gobie, a firefish and a false perc along with my cleaner crew(blue legs,turbos,nassarius snails and a cleaner shrimp)
All perameters are fine...
ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrate-undetectable
po4-undetectable
pH-8.3
alk-3.6
I still think it was caused by the heater only because it was moving around the vacinity of the heater and not sure what else it could possably be.
Any other ideas Thomas?

 

[thomas712]

I can't think of what would have done that. I'm trying to imagine a heater burning the tentacles off, but I just don't see it happening, the anemone would have (if it could have) shrunk right away from it immediatly, just like we would if burned.
I might suggest getting a plastic casing for the heater, they do make them. I have one covering almost the entire heater in my refugium.
Thomas

 

[fishfreek]

Yah, after i really thought about it, maybe it wasn't the heater, but i will take your advise and get a heater cover. Wish i knew what caused this for sure to prevent it from happeing in the future.
He does look better today but still only about 1/2 open. I'll have to keep a close eye on him incase he takes a turn for the worse.
Thanks for your help Thomas.

 

[sula]

I had this exact thing happen to one of my small RBTAs. I noticed it had moved over to an area of the live rock where there wasn't much space between rock and heater. I thought for sure the anemone would move away if it got too hot, but it didn't. The next time I looked, the anemone was sortof "stuck" on the heater, which was on. I unplugged the heater and waited a little for it to cool down, then gently peeled the anemone off. It looked pretty rough, but by the next day it re-attached to some rock and looked mostly normal - except for the melted away area. Looked just like someone took a bite out of it. :scared:
Amazingly enough, the anemone survived. It's been a couple weeks now and there is no longer any sign of damage.
Oh, and I moved the heater, squeezed it into the BakPak skimmer to prevent a repeat performance. :happyfish